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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with beef stock, onions, butter, flour, pepper, salt, and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onions and drained tomatoes; cook for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and press the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Return the strained mixture to the pan and add the beef stock.

  5. Dissolve the flour in a little warm water and stir it in.

  6. Add the pepper, salt, and sauce; stir well.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup.
Beef stock
Adds liquid and savoury depth to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour from the pan into the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it is stirred in, giving a smoother body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Dissolve the flour in warm water before stirring it in. Flour added dry or in lumps clumps and stays grainy. Dissolving it first in a little warm liquid lets it disperse evenly so the soup thickens smoothly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, onion, pepper, sauce):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, onion, pepper, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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